The present invention relates to data storage and processing apparatus and, more particularly, to data storage and processing apparatus for storing and processing data for use by a video display monitor in systems such as stock quotation systems.
There are many display applications in which it is desired to display information on the display surface of a video display monitor. For example, in stock quotation systems it is often desired to display several blocks of security and commodity information, either individually or several blocks simultaneously, on the display surface of a video display monitor located in a stockbroker's office. Some examples of blocks of security and commodity information include information relating to a particular security (e.g., open, close and last trades, high, low, dividends, etc.), quote board formatted information relating to a selected number of securities and/or commodities, market indices including Dow Jones, Standard & Poor, NYSE and ASE indices, and listings of price-active or volume-active securities. Desirably, the above blocks of information should be stored simultaneously in a memory storage unit and read out therefrom as required to be then processed, for example, in recirculating data registers and character generator circuitry, into a form suitable for display on the display surface of the video display monitor. Additionally, the conservation of storage space in the memory storage unit is highly desirable so as to maximize the amount of data which may be stored in the memory storage unit at any given time.